Spiders
by owlsong489
Summary: The supposedly fearless Lily Evans actually has a very severe fear of a tiny eight-legged creature. Post-Hogwarts.


**A/N:** _It's been a very long time since I published anything on here, but hopefully you'll enjoy this one. Reviews are always lovely, too!_

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"James!"

He dropped the picture frame he trying to hang in the bedroom as soon as he heard Lily's scream and he darted down the hallway, drawing his wand as he came into the living room. "What? What is it?" he asked as his eyes flashed from the closed door to the windows overlooking the front yard, completely missing the fact that his girlfriend had jumped up onto one of the couches and was pointing to the corner of the room. "Lils, what is it?"

"Spider. Big, big spider!" She gestured to the corner again, bouncing slightly on the cushions as she did so.

James lowered his wand with a laugh. "Are you serious? I thought you were being attacked!"

"Well if you don't do something about that massive thing staring at me from the corner, it'll probably come back for me in my sleep!" Her voice hit a particularly high pitch as she picked up one of the pillows from an open box and chucked it at her boyfriend. She flinched as he batted it away and it rolled across the floor, coming dangerously close to where the spider sat unmoving. "Please, James. Can you just kill it?"

"I'm not killing it, Lily." He walked out of the room, shaking his head as her words followed him to the kitchen.

"James Potter! You come back here and take care of this or I'm sleeping at Marlene's tonight!"

"Yes, but then you'd have to get off the couch and walk past the spider to get to the door, Evans." He laughed as he walked back into the room, a glass and a piece of cardboard in his hand.

"What's that for?" Lily had sunk down to the couch, clutching a pillow to her chest as she stared on like a petulant child.

"For helping the poor little thing escape. He's had you shrieking at it for long enough, I'm just going to let him outside so he can live in peace." He knew it probably wasn't the smartest thing to say, but he had to admit that he still sometimes loved riling her up like this as long as he could fix everything in the end. And he usually didn't have any problems doing that.

Lily watched as he trapped the spider under the glass, using the paper to help carry it out the door. She let out a sigh of relief when he came back inside and dropped both makeshift tools beside one of the unopened moving boxes by the door. Slowly, she let her legs drop to the floor, smiling sheepishly at him as he moved towards her. "Sorry. It surprised me that's all."

"Who would've thought that compared to everything else she'd seen in the world, Lily Evans would be scared of a little spider," James said with a laugh as he pulled her to her feet and wrapped his arms around her waist. "It wasn't even that big, you know."

"Bold-faced lie, James. It was huge! And it practically leapt at me when I moved that box." She nodded her head towards a half unpacked box by the fireplace. "You just like showing off." She leaned up on the balls of her feet to kiss him quickly.

"No," he smiled against her lips before pulling away and brushing some hair back from her face. "I just don't think we need to be killing anything else in this house when there's so much else happening out in the world."

Lily bit her lip at his words. Maybe he had a point, ridiculous as it may have sounded. "Well maybe I just think that there's plenty else in the world that I should save my fearlessness for, so it excuses my being scared of big black hairy spiders with their beady little eyes and too many legs."

"You're ridiculous, you know that Lily?"

"Actually I think I have heard that before. Some prat I went to school with used to say that to me regularly, as a matter of fact." She smirked up at him, her hands moving along his arms, taking a moment to appreciate that he hadn't lost all the muscle he'd gained from years of quidditch. "But we are not having a spider sanctuary in this house. They don't get to stay inside."

"Fine, fine. I'll take them outside. Happy?" He rolled his eyes at her reaction before tightening his grip on her waist and pulling her closer.

But something moved out of the corner of Lily's eye and she saw the same spider suddenly crawl over his shoulder. It must have crawled back from the jar and up his arm. She pushed herself away from James. "Spi-spi-spider!" And she pulled her arm back and smacked it from his shoulder. James spun around quickly and in a move reminiscent of a choreographed dance between he and Lily, he kicked his leg out and squashed it beneath his foot. He turned his head back to Lily, shoulders shivering for just a moment as he thought about the spider crawling over him. "That was disgusting."

"Not so friendly to them now, are you, Potter?" Lily asked as she cocked her brow and placed her hands on her hips. "Don't worry. You can join us down here with all us mere mortals who don't like spiders. It's all the legs," she said, lifting her hands and moving her fingers to illustrate. "Creepy little spider legs."

"That was one spider, Evans. I'm not killing anymore," he replied, shaking his head in amusement.

"You say that now. But wait till we start putting things in the attic. Mother of Merlin, I bet you'll have an absolute panic attack if we get up there and-" James pulled her close to him and cut her off with a kiss. That was enough talk of spiders for one day.


End file.
